Treasures Lost, Treasures Found

watched her drop eggs into the skillet where the white began to sizzle and solidify around the edges.
    “Kate, I’d like to talk to you.”
    “I’ve been thinking we might consider renting a salvage ship after all,” she interrupted, “and perhaps hiring another couple of divers. Excavating the cargo’s going to be very slow work with just the two of us. It’s certainly time we looked into lifting bags and lines.”
    Long days in the sun had lightened her hair. There were shades upon shades of variation so that as it flowed it reminded him of the smooth soft pelt of a deer. “I don’t want to talk business now.”
    “It’s not something we can put off too much longer.” Efficiently, she scooped up the eggs and slid them onto plates. “I’m beginning to think we should expedite the excavation rather than dragging it out for what may very well be several more weeks. Then, of course, if we’re talking about excavating the entire site, it would be months.”
    “Not now.” Ky turned off the burner under the skillet. Taking both plates from Kate, he set them on the table. “Look, I have to do something, and I’m not sure I’ll do it very well.”
    Turning, Kate took silverware from the drawer and went to the table. “What?”
    “Apologize.” When she looked back at him in her cool, quiet way, he swore. “No, I won’t do it well.”
    “It isn’t necessary.”
    “Yes, it’s necessary. Sit down.” He let out a long breath as she remained standing. “Please,” he added, then took a chair himself. Without a word, Kate sat across from him. “You saved my life yesterday.” Even saying it aloud, he felt uneasy about it. “It was no less than that. I never could have taken that shark with my diver’s knife. The only reason I did was because you’d weakened and distracted him.”
    Kate lifted her coffee and drank as though they were discussing the weather. It was the only way she had of blocking out images of what might have been. “Yes.”
    With a frustrated laugh, Ky stabbed at his eggs. “Not going to make it easy on me, are you?”
    “No, I don’t think I am.”
    “I’ve never been that scared,” he said quietly. “Not for myself, certainly not for anyone else. I thought he had you.” He looked up and met her calm, patient eyes. “I was still too far away to do anything about it. If…”
    “Sometimes it’s best not to think about the ifs.”
    “All right.” He nodded and reached for her hand. “Kate, realizing you put yourself in danger to protect me only made it worse somehow. The possibility of anything happening to you was bad enough, but the idea of it happening because of me was unbearable.”
    “You would’ve protected me.”
    “Yes, but—”
    “There shouldn’t be any buts, Ky.”
    “Maybe there shouldn’t be,” he agreed, “but I can’t promise there won’t be.”
    “I’ve changed.” The fact filled her with an odd sense of power and unease. “For too many years I’ve channeled my own desires because I thought somehow that approval could be equated with love. I know better now.”
    “I’m not your father, Kate.”
    “No, but you also have a way of imposing your will on me. My fault to a point.” Her voice was calm, level, as it was when she lectured her students. She hadn’t slept while Ky had spent his hours in the shed. Like him, she’d spent her time in thought, in search for the right answers.
    “Four years ago, I had to give to one of you and deny the other. It broke my heart. Today, I know I have toanswer to myself first.” With her breakfast hardly touched, she took her plate to the sink. “I love you, Ky,” she murmured. “But I have to answer to myself first.”
    Rising, he went to her and laid his hands on her shoulders. Somehow the strength that suddenly seemed so powerful in her both attracted him yet left him uneasy. “Okay.” When she turned into his arms, he felt the world settle a bit. “Just let me know what the answer is.”
    “When I can.” She closed her eyes and held tight. “When I can.”
     
    For three long days they dove, working away the silt to find new discoveries. With a small air lift and their own hands, they found the practical, the beautiful and the ordinary. They came upon more than eight thousand of the ten thousand decorated pipes on the Liberty ’s manifest. At least half of them, to Kate’s delight, had their bowls intact. They were clay, long-stemmed pipes with the bowls decorated with oak